Lighthouse & BFI Announce 16 New Short Films Are Going Into Production

07 November 2012

We are thrilled to announce the 16 short film projects to receive production funding through BFI Shorts 2012, the BFI's one year scheme to support emerging UK filmmakers.

After 9 months of intensive work, it is a great pleasure to reveal the outstanding film projects which are about to go into production as part of BFI Shorts 2012, which Lighthouse manages. Spanning genres from drama to comedy, thriller to sci-fi, and featuring filmmakers from a range of creative disciplines including film, TV, documentary, commercials and theatre, the 16 ambitious live action films have been selected for their strength of artistic vision and potential audience appeal.

The filmmakers also include a number of BAFTA nominees: Alex Winckler, 2011 ‘Star of Tomorrow’ Michael Pearce, Faye Gilbert, Corinna Faith whose new film will be produced by feature producer Laura Hastings-Smith (Hunger), and Jonathan van Tulleken who will collaborate with Edinburgh Comedy Winner Tim Key. Other selected filmmakers include: Independent on Sunday film critic Jonathan Romney will direct his third short, Screen International 2012 ‘Star of Tomorrow’ Mustapha Kseibati, Stephen Fingleton, Karan Kandhari, Jane Linfoot, Stephen Leslie, experienced TV director Michael Keillor, and award-winning documentary director Eva Weber who makes the transition to drama with her new short set in Eastern Europe.

Today’s announcement, which took place at Encounters Film Festival in Bristol follows an open call for applications in February. After receiving almost 1000 applications Lighthouse and the BFI embarked on a rigorous selection process, taking a number of films through to long-list stage and providing a development period to further hone a number of projects before selecting the final 16 films. The combined production budget for the scheme is up to £800,000 and the completed films are due to be delivered in 2013.

For BFI Shorts 2012, Emily Kyriakides, Programme Producer at Lighthouse, is working in partnership Neon Films’ Nicky Bentham who co-produced Duncan Jones’ BAFTA award-winning Moon, and independent development producer Becca Ellson, to oversee the executive production of the films.

Field Study
Drama
A story about the latent poisons in power, knowledge and innocence. A young, shy student on a field trip to post-communist Poland very abruptly comes of age when he makes the choice to withhold a truth.
Director: Eva Weber
Writer: Line Langbek
Producer: Claire Neate James

Gutpunch
Comedy
After discovering that his biological father could be any one of the desperados from a 1980s video-dating tape, 15-year-old Adam embarks on a suburban quest to find the man he can now call ‘Dad’.
Director: Adrian McDowall
Writer: Andrew Yerlett
Producer: Michelle Eastwood

Keeping Up With The Joneses
Black Comedy
MP’s wife Celia discovers her husband’s true colours when she is taken hostage by his criminal business associates, but both her and her kidnapper also end up learning a thing or two about themselves.
Director: Michael Pearce
Writer: Selina Lim
Producer: Megan Stuart-Wallace

L’Assenza
Drama
A man becomes obsessed by the sight of his own double in an Italian film from the early 1960s.
Writer/Director: Jonathan Romney
Producer: Carey Born

Liam + Lenka
Thriller
On the run and in trouble, a desperate young criminal falls for a bored Polish waitress in a remote highland hotel.
Writer/Director: Michael Keillor
Producer: Ally Gipps

Orbit Ever After
Sci-fi Romance
The distant future. Two star-crossed lovers overcome all probabilities sacrificing everything they have in order to spend one perfect moment together.
Writer/Director: Jamie Stone
Producers: Chee-Lan Chan and Kurban Kassam

Sea View
Drama
A contemporary portrait of a teenage girl trying to navigate her way through the trials and tribulations of a brief encounter with an older man.
Writer/Director: Jane Linfoot
Producer: Anna Duffield

Sidney
Comedy Drama
A melancholy comedy about a burnt out French builder reduced to handyman work in a backpackers’ hostel, an Indian exchange student turning thirty, and a teenage girl just looking for a beer at the end of a long night.
Writer/Director: Karan Kandhari
Producer: Rebecca Wolff
Co-Producer: Ben Murray

SLR
Thriller Drama
A middle-aged divorced father obsessed with ‘voyeur pornography’ discovers someone taking pictures of own his teenage daughter. Unable to tell her the truth or go to the police, he must find the snapper himself and assert his own moral justice.
Writer/Director: Stephen Fingleton
Producer: Matt Wilkinson

The Beast
Thriller Drama
A girl is captivated by the romantic myth of a beast on a moor – but a real beast is closer than she realised.
Writer/Director: Corinna Faith
Producer: Laura Hastings-Smith

The Line
Thriller Drama
A teenage girl and young boy run for their lives to cross ‘The Line’, but are they running away from danger or towards it?
Writer/Director: Faye Gilbert
Producer: Yaw Basoah

The Portrait
Drama
When a young art student paints a portrait of her ageing grandfather, her mother is forced to confront a past she had been trying to forget.
Director: Chris Forster
Writer: Ewan Forster
Producers: Clive Myer and Lynda Myer-Bennett
Co-Producer: Katie Holly

Tits
Comedy Drama
Despite assurances that his condition is common and will pass; thirteen year old Sam is horrified to find he has grown a pair of breasts. His terror intensifies when the resident school bully sets in motion a tense game of cat and mouse, as he subtly threatens to expose Sam to the school; building inexorably towards a confrontation that neither of them could ever have imagined…
Director: Alex Winckler
Writer: Duncan Barrett
Producer: Patrick Howson
Co-Producer: Lauren Dark

To Leech
Comedy Drama
A black comedy about two men trying to resolve an argument in a rather unusual, anachronistic fashion. They meet on a field at dawn to fight a duel.
Writer/Director: Stephen Leslie
Producer: Seb Loden